Zachariasen Memorial Lectures

These lectures are annually given by outstanding alumni of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, in honor of William Zachariasen. Zachariasen is well known for his remarkable work on X-ray Diffraction in Crystals, but he was also an outstanding teacher. From 1945 to 1950 and again from 1955 to 1959, Zachariasen was the chair of the Physics department. His influence and effectiveness as department chair has positively affected many lives. He brought many distinguished physicists to Chicago, including Enrico Fermi, Ed Teller, Robert Christy, Walter Zinn, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and Gregor Wentzel. Among those who earned PhDs at Chicago between 1945 and 1950 there were five who won Nobel prizes later in their careers.

April 21, 2022

The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter

Katherine Freese, University of Texas at Austin


May 13, 2021

Black Holes and Spacetime Singularities

Gary Horowitz, University of California, Santa Barbara


June 6, 2019

"How did Amy and Sheldon win their Nobel Prize?"

David Saltzberg, University of California Los Angeles


April 5, 2018

“The quest to observe the Turbulent Cascade in real time”

Michael Brenner, Harvard University


​​​​​​​May 18, 2017

“From the Higgs to dark matter: the search for the underlying code of our universe”

Joseph Incandela, University of California Santa Barbara


March 31, 2016

“Symmetry, topology and electronic phases of matter”

Charles L. Kane, University of Pennsylvania


April 30, 2015

“Mott-Hubbard Transition in Ruthenium Perovskites”

John B. Goodenough, University of Texas


February 27, 2014

“Ultracold Polar Molecules”

Deborah Jin, University of Colorado


November 15, 2012

“What has the Large Hadron Collider done to Theory?”

Savas Dimopoulos, Stanford University


November 3, 2011

“The Kondo Effect in a Single Electron Transistor”

Marc A. Kastner, MIT


October 28, 2010

“The Invention and Early History of the CCD”

George E. Smith, Bell Labs, Nobel Laureat


October 29, 2009

“On the fly: A Hubble Story"

John Mace Grunsfeld, NASA/Johnson Space Center


January 22, 2009

“Voyager’s Journey to Interstellar Space”

Edward C. Stone, California Institute of Technology


November 15, 2007

“Magnetic Moment and the Fine Structure Constant”

Gerald Gabrielse, Harvard


March 29, 2007

“The World Year of Physics, Einstein, Nanoscience, and Superconductivity”

Marvin L. Cohen, University of California, Berkeley


January 19, 2006

"The Universe is a Strange Place"

Frank Wilczek, MIT


February 26, 2004

"Fermi Remembered"

James W. Cronin, University of Chicago


October 24, 2002

“More is indeed different: an example of novel physics from semiconductor electronics"

Daniel C. Tsui, Princeton University


October 25, 2001

"The Formative Years of Particle Physics"

Yoichiro Nambu, University of Chicago


November 16, 2000

“Does Nuclear Energy Have a Future?”

Alvin Weinberg, Oak Ridge Associated Universities


October 28, 1999

“Fermi’s Little Neutron, the Neutrino, 65 Years Later”

Lincoln Wolfenstein, Carnegie Mellon University


October 22, 1998

“New Horizons in Particle Physics”

Jerome I. Friedman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


November 13, 1997

“The Chicago Atom Bomb Project and Its Legacy”

Marvin L. Goldberger, University of California at San Diego


March 6, 1997

“Adventures of a Physicist in National Security Technology and Policy”

Richard L. Garwin, IBM Watson Research Center


November 9, 1995

“Symmetry and Asymmetry”

T. D. Lee, Columbia University


October 27, 1994

“Physics Issues for Fusion”

Marshall Rosenbluth, University of California at San Diego


November 11, 1993

“Fullerenes, Tubules and Their Unique Properties”

Mildred S. Dresselhaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


October 29, 1992

“Carbon 60”

C. N. Yang, SUNY at Stony Brook


October 10, 1991

“Status of the Standard Model”

Jack Steinberger, CERN